Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (11.2011)

Not Russia, but... the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan has long been tied to Russia, having been ceded to Tsarist Russia in a treaty with China in 1876. It was a republic during Soviet rule and became an independent country in December 1991. A poor, land-locked, mountainous country of just over 5,000,000 people, Kyrgyzstan is one of the world's six independent Turkic states. Although the country is historically Muslim, it has long been a secular state, though it is now faced with an increasingly active Islamic community and influx of Muslim missionaries. Both Russia and the U.S. have military bases in Kyrgyzstan with the U.S. base supporting U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.